PHILADELPHIA — When C.J. Aiken arrived at Plymouth Whitemarsh High before his junior season, he was entering into a basketball program that had been very strong of late, but was coming off a season in which it had struggled.

The Colonials did not win a playoff game that previous year, for the first time in nearly a decade.

Part of Aiken’s job was going to be to immediately make an impact for the Colonials.

It took two seasons and some growing pains along the way, but Aiken, Jaylen Bond and company brought a state championship to Plymouth Whitemarsh in 2010.

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This year, Aiken is beginning his junior season at the next level, for St. Joseph’s University. When he arrived on Hawk Hill two years earlier, the team was coming off its first 20-loss season in 20 years.

Once again, he knew it would take a while. During his freshman year, the Hawks again lost 20 games, finishing 12th in the Atlantic-10 Conference for the second year in a row.

Last year, however, saw a large growth spurt for the team, and its tallest player, as SJU went from a 20-loss season to a 20-win season and a berth in the postseason NIT. Aiken, for his part, was fifth in the nation in blocked shots and was named the Atlantic-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore.

Something he readily understands as his junior season is in its infancy, so much more is expected from both the team and the player over the next few months.

“It’s the same thing at any level, the expectations,” said Aiken, the 2010 Times Herald Player of the Year for boys basketball. “When I went to PW, we wanted to prove some people wrong. We didn’t get to where we needed to right away, though. It took a while.

“This time, here, we want to get to the (NCAA) Tournament in March, and the A-10 final. It’s the same thing, just a different focus.”

Before the season even tipped off, the Hawks were tabbed as the favorite to win the A-10 in a poll of coaches and media members. Aiken was selected to the preseason All-Defensive Team and All-Conference Third Team.

St. Joe’s opened its regular season Monday night with a 61-35 win over visiting Yale. The Hawks (1-0) now head to Brooklyn for a Friday matchup with (No. 20/21) Notre Dame as part of the Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic.

Aiken started and scored eight points along with having three blocks Monday.

Last year, he averaged 10.9 points a game and 5.1 rebounds, blocking 3.53 shots a game. Aiken’s 120 blocks last year was one off SJU’s single-season record and his 237 career blocks already has him in second place on the Hawks’ all-time list, behind only Rodney Blake (419).

Having found a new home on Hawk Hill, Aiken is clearly a more confident person as he carries his 6-9 frame around campus this fall.

“He walks around with his head in the air,” said head coach Phil Martelli, entering his 18th season in charge of the Hawks. “He is clearly more engaged, he is a lot more comfortable. He still will hold that little bit back and he won’t seek to dominate.

“I want him to see opportunities and seize those opportunities. We have a balanced team, with four guys returning who scored in double figures and a fifth guy who led us in rebounds and assists. We have a real nice balance.”

The Hawks do return quite a lot from last year, on a team that learned how to win during the year and wants to use that knowledge to improve upon last season’s 20-14 mark. The campaign ended in a first-round to Northern Iowa in the NIT.

“Everybody is coming into this year knowing their role,” Aiken said. “I mean, freshman year, I didn’t know what to expect or what they expected. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t really know anything.

“This year, I think everybody just knows their roles way better.”

The difference, as the Hawks see it, is knowing what to do during crunch time. St. Joe’s lost eight games last year by five or fewer points, including a pair in double-overtime.

“After the season ended last year,” Aiken said, “we knew that we needed to get better at finishing games. Since everyone was coming back, we used the summer to push each other.”

This comment is what might have Martelli most encouraged about the burgeoning season. The Hawks got it that this offseason was crucial if the team was to take the next step.

“It’s just a more mature approach,” Martelli said. “I wanted them to be positively disappointed.

“We wanted them to be disappointed, that we didn’t get more, that we were unfulfilled. But, I also wanted to stick their head high in the air and tell me how many times in our history we won 20 games.”

The Hawks had not won 20 games since going 24-8 in the 2005-06 season, when the team was the NIT runner-up. That was the year after the team went 30-2 and reached the Elite Eight with Jameer Nelson and Delonte West.

The team has had its ups and downs since then, and St. Joe’s clearly believes it is on an upswing at the moment.

The Hawks’ big man believes that, as well, not only for the team but for himself. Aiken remembers how much hard work it took from when he arrived at PW to when the team cut down the nets as state champions.

He knows that to have a chance at doing any cutting of a net this year, it will take more work than he has ever had to put forth before.